Twenty-two new species in the genus Hyphantrophaga Townsend (Diptera: Tachinidae) from Area de Conservación Guanacaste, with a key to the species of Mesoamerica

Abstract

We describe 22 new species in the genus Hyphantrophaga Townsend, 1892 (Diptera: Tachinidae) from Area de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG) in north-western Costa Rica. All species were reared from an ongoing inventory of wild-caught caterpillars spanning a variety of families (Lepidoptera: Bombycidae, Crambidae, Depressariidae, Doidae, Erebidae, Euteliidae, Gelechiidae, Geometridae, Hedylidae, Hesperiidae, Immidae, Lasiocampidae, Limacodidae, Megalopygidae, Mimaloniidae, Noctuidae, Nolidae, Notodontidae, Nymphalidae, Papilionidae, Pieridae, Phiditiidae, Pterophoridae, Pyralidae, Riodinidae, Saturniidae, Sphingidae, Thyrididae, Tortricidae and Zygaenidae). We provide a morphological description of each species together with information on life history, molecular data and photographic documentation. In addition to the new species, we provide a redescription of the genus, as well as the redescription of three previously described species, which were also collected within ACG during this study: Hyphantrophagaangustata (van der Wulp), Hyphantrophagamyersi (Aldrich) and Hyphantrophagavirilis (Aldrich & Webber). The following 22 new species of Hyphantrophaga are described: Hyphantrophagaadrianguadamuzi Fleming & Wood sp. n., Hyphantrophagaalbopilosa Fleming & Wood sp. n., Hyphantrophagaanacordobae Fleming & Wood sp. n., Hyphantrophagacalixtomoragai Fleming & Wood sp. n., Hyphantrophagacalva Fleming & Wood sp. n.., Hyphantrophagaciriloumanai Fleming & Wood sp. n., Hyphantrophagadanausophaga Fleming & Wood sp. n., Hyphantrophagadiniamartinezae Fleming & Wood sp. n., Hyphantrophagaduniagarciae Fleming & Wood sp. n., Hyphantrophagaedwinapui Fleming & Wood sp. n., Hyphantrophagaeldaarayae Fleming & Wood sp. n., Hyphantrophagaeliethcantillanoe Fleming & Wood sp. n., Hyphantrophagagilberthampiei Fleming & Wood sp. n., Hyphantrophagaguillermopereirai Fleming & Wood sp. n., Hyphantrophagahazelcambroneroae Fleming & Wood sp. n., Hyphantrophagaluciariosae Fleming & Wood sp. n., Hyphantrophagamanuelriosi Fleming & Wood sp. n., Hyphantrophagamorphophaga Fleming & Wood sp. n., Hyphantrophaganigricauda Fleming & Wood sp. n., Hyphantrophagaosvaldoespinozai Fleming & Wood sp. n., Hyphantrophagapabloumanai Fleming & Wood sp. n. and Hyphantrophagasimilis Fleming & Wood sp. n. The following are proposed by Wood as new synonyms of Hyphantrophaga Townsend, 1892: Brachymasicera Townsend, 1911 syn. n., Ommasicera Townsend, 1911 syn. n., Ophirosturmia Townsend, 1911 syn. n., Patillalia Curran, 1934 syn. n. and Ypophaemyiops Townsend, 1935 syn. n. The following nine new combinations are proposed as a result of the new synonymies: Hyphantrophagaadamsoni (Thompson, 1963), comb. n., Hyphantrophagafasciata (Curran, 1934), comb. n., Hyphantrophagaglauca (Giglio-Tos, 1893), comb. n., Hyphantrophagagowdeyi (Curran, 1926), comb. n., Hyphantrophagamyersi (Aldrich, 1933), comb. n., Hyphantrophaganigripes (Townsend, 1928), comb. n., Hyphantrophagaoptica (Schiner, 1868), comb. n., Hyphantrophagapolita (Townsend, 1911), comb. n., Hyphantrophagasubpolita (Townsend, 1912), comb. n.